Jeffrey Dean Morgan on ‘The Walking Dead’ and Negan After Rick Leaves

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, like the rest of The Walking Dead family, is devastated to see Andrew Lincoln leaving the gang in Season Nine.

Speaking to members of the press on the set of the show’s ninth season, Morgan opened up about Lincoln’s departure from the series. While he preserved any spoilers for how Rick departs the group of survivors in Alexandria, he admits it is a “bummer” to see him go. For Morgan, a longtime fan of Robert Kirkman’s comics, this means his Negan character will no longer get to fulfill several story beats involving his character with Lincoln’s Rick Grimes. Both Negan and Morgan miss Lincoln and Rick.

Negan without Rick is “just like Jeff without Andy, I’m really sad,” according to the actor. “I think it’s a bummer. I think Negan will be OK. I think one thing with Andy leaving the show, as much as it sucks for all of us, fans and cast and crew because we love him, more than anything we love Andy, and it’s just different now without him.”

However, this does open the door for other cast members and characters to step up in Lincoln’s absence. “What him leaving has done, is it’s given opportunity to other actors and propelled the story that never would have been able to kind of go this way if he was still here,” Morgan said. “This is me trying to find some good stuff here! And, I think that the storyline with him leaving is really good. I think it’s solid and I think some people are really stepping up and taking hold of that as actors. You’ll see who I’m talking about soon enough.”

Of course, the comic book source material uses Negan’s relationship with Rick to set the character up for an interesting and fan-favorite anti-hero journey of sorts. While Rick won’t be around to be on the other half of those stories, other characters might step into remixed versions of the stories, as a show has had a history of doing for years.

“There is going to be other people that step into kind of the roll of Rick, but they will never be Rick,” Morgan said. “There will never be another Rick Grimes to Negan. He loved Rick in a very weird way and very much looked forward to their meetings. Negan’s always, even in the worst of times, trying to figure out a chess move and what is next. And, there is a lot of next this year. But he misses — I don’t know what to say about Rick Grimes. I think that Negan is probably very sad about it.”

Fear the Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. The Walking Dead returns for its ninth season on October 7, 2018. For more updates and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!